While many companies have invested in system tools that manage and optimize transaction applications, Information Systems (IS) organizations have lacked tools to easily manage the growing volume and unpredictable nature of ad hoc data access-that is, until now. SmartMode, together with its partner product, SiteAnalyzer, has been developed by Information Builders' iWay Software specifically to help IS organizations analyze and control end-user data access, as well as provide site specific control options. |
In this section: |
SmartMode is a data access governing tool that controls costs by letting you limit the amount of resources that requests are allowed to use. As a component of FOCUS, SmartMode provides preemptive governing for requests issued to both relational and non-relational databases.
SmartMode uses a Usage Monitoring facility to gather statistics about how data is accessed and used.
An administrator defines site-specific thresholds designating the amount of resources a request may use. Based on this usage and threshold information, SmartMode builds rules about how requests are to be governed against specific data objects. The governing facility uses these rules when inspecting each request, stopping any request that exceeds the predetermined resource thresholds.
SmartMode also possesses reporting capabilities that enable you to study request activity at your site from many perspectives.
To help you manage your site activity, SmartMode controls data access by placing resource limits on requests. To establish this control, SmartMode:
The following table provides a summary of the basic operations SmartMode undergoes and the steps you need to take to monitor and govern site activity.
Operation |
Description |
Collect data about the system. |
Turn on Usage Monitoring for your site. SmartMode then records the requests and the data about resource usage. |
Describe resource thresholds for various time periods. |
Enter the relative resource thresholds to set limits on the amount of resources each request can use. Monitored resources include elapsed and CPU time, IOs, and the number of result rows returned to the client. These thresholds help determine which requests can run during a specific time period. |
Create rules. |
Use SmartMode to create a rules file or knowledge base. SmartMode then uses these rules to evaluate each request and predict whether the request operates within the thresholds specified. |
Turn Governing on. |
Put governing rules into effect for each data source governed. |
Govern data source access. |
Every time a request uses a monitored data source, SmartMode predicts whether the request exceeds thresholds, based on the rules it has created. The only requests that are allowed to run are those estimated to use lower or equal amounts of threshold time, result rows, and IOs. Requests that are estimated to exceed the thresholds are cancelled. |
Apply site-specific custom rules to add query limitations. |
Customize governing to prevent or allow data access under specific conditions. |
The following table summarizes SmartMode's principal components.
Component |
Purpose |
SmartMode System Administrator Facility (Smart/SAF) |
A set of windows and menus that allows you to customize and control SmartMode's performance by providing it with information, configuring for SmartMode's other components, and performing administrative functions. |
Usage Monitor |
The facility that tracks requests and logs data on requests' resource usage. |
Rule Generator |
The component that uses inductive technology to create rules that estimate requests' potential resource usage and includes the custom rules that you build. |
Governor |
The component that uses the rules to predict whether a report would exceed the thresholds you have set. It allows or prevents requests to process on the basis of the prediction. |
SmartMode offers several built-in reports that provide useful information about the request activity at your site. You can use these reports to gain an understanding of the activity level and resource expenses incurred by file and user ID. Additional built-in reports provide information about SmartMode's configuration at your site, and about the rules it has generated for each database. This information is valuable for resource usage management.
The following reports are available in SmartMode. You can also use FOCUS to create custom reports tailored to your site's environment.
For more information on the types of reports SmartMode can produce for you, as well as custom reports you can design yourself, see Displaying Reports.
| Information Builders |